Espino: Rehab for drug users urgent

LINGAYEN—The provincial government is looking forward to the start of the operation of the drug rehabilitation center in Barangay San Vicente, Burgos, with the expected early completion of the construction facility.

In his State of the Province Address (SOPA) during a special session of the provincial board at the Capitol Plaza hare at 8:00 a.m. last Thursday, Gov. Amado Espino III acknowledged the urgency rehabilitating self-confessed drug users by already spending P80 million to rush its completion.

He said the drug rehabilitation center is now 60 percent complete and if work on the project is not hampered by bad weather, the facility will start to operate in July this year.

The drug rehabilitation center is being built on a two-hectare lot donated to the province by the heirs of the late Burgos Mayor Demetrio Cabiles.

Expected to benefit from the rehabilitation center are low to moderately affected drug users who will be given a week of boot camp/cum values formation training under the supervision of experts from the Department of Health and other agencies.

The severely affected drug users will be referred to bigger drug rehabilitation center of the DOH in Dagupan City and Palayan City in Nueva Ecija.

Espino also revealed that Pangasinan is the first province in the entire country to conduct mandatory random drug testing of its employees.

So far, 3,088 of the provincial employees or 87 percent have already undergone random drug testing in compliance with Provincial Ordinance No. 200, series of 2016.

He said a drug summit was held in Pangasinan in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in August 2016.

All these efforts, he said, showed that the provincial government is actively supporting the present administration’s Project Double Barrel to help make the Philippines drug-free before President Rodrigo Duterte bows out of office. (Leonardo Micua)